This is a red-eye flight from Singapore Changi Airport T3 to Beijing Capital Airport T3.
Flight routing
- 1SQ800 SIN-PEK
- 2SQ801 PEK-SIN
I thought the timing of this flight is great, arriving in the morning to maximize my time for traveling. This flight would be on the flagship A350-900, a very comfortable plane in general, although the returning leg would be on the slightly narrower B787-10.
At the gate after scanning our boarding passes and passport, I was given the Chinese entry registration card to fill up ahead of time, giving me more time to sleep on the plane, a nice touch.
As usual I got a window seat 52K, selected in advance free-of-charge for my fare class. Pillow and blanket are conveniently placed on the seats for sleep, although no amenity kit or eye mask provided by default like Turkish Airlines.
Having ample legroom for myself, the seat was comfortable and the cabin lights were nice for settling in for sleeping later. Seat was equipped with a few pockets, one of which I conveniently used for my water bottle. There's also a gap below the IFE which I can place my phone while using the USB port to charge it. The angle of the IFE can be adjusted such that it holds my phone in place as well. Earbuds were provided at the door prior to boarding.
Boarding was smooth and I was seated around 12.40am. I was lucky to have the seat right next to me empty.
About 1 hour into the flight, supper was served. I chose the Oriental option - Red braised pork belly with steamed rice. The main dish came with thick red braised sauce under the pork, the meat wasn't exactly as tender as I would like it, but it was not tough at all, so it was decent. It was served alongside a shrimp with some sort of grain appetizer which really complemented the heavy profile of the pork belly, and a delicious strawberry cheesecake mousse.
After a rather heavy "supper", window shades were shut, lights were dimmed and I went to sleep comfortably. Managed to get slightly less than 4 hours of good sleep before the cabin crew woke me up to open the window shades for landing.
Despite departing 13 mins behind schedule, we managed to arrive 15 mins early in Beijing Capital Airport.
Navigating around PEK is not as easy though, there was a row of fingerprint scanning machines and there was no staff to advice on whether we should proceed to scan our fingers with it. The immigration queue was also rather long. After passing through immigration, I had to take the monorail to the other terminal to pick up my bags.
